|
|
|
New England hosts the Colts: like taking candy from a baby? |
|
November 03, 2006 |
 Sparty |
 Bernardini |
 Wedding ring |
Los Angeles, November 3, 2006 – It’s the Indianapolis defense that will be on the spot on Sunday night when the undefeated Colts trudge into Foxboro to face the 7-1 Patriots in a preview of the AFC playoffs. Yes, the Colts offense is great, but Peyton Manning is 1-7 in games in Foxboro and his made-for-domes team will have to play in 35-degree weather. Moreover, the Colts defense is already banged up with injuries and New England has hit stride, allowing only 78 yards per game on the ground although giving up 218 a game through the air. Oddsmakers have the Patriots a one-point favorite with the over-and-under at 47; translation: Patriots 24, Colts 23.
>> More football: Pittsburgh’s Steelers entered the season a 7-1 pick to win another Super Bowl, but after a 2-5 start and a loss last week to the Raiders, they’re now 50-1!
>> College prep: Oklahoma excused quarterback Rhett Bomar before the season started and lost Adrian Peterson to injury, but the Sooners are 6-2 including a “loss” in a game they won at Oregon. The new star at tailback is Allen Patrick, who had 162 yards against Missouri last week and will need to have another big game as the Sooners travel to 7-1 Texas A&M.
>> Tough-to-take department: Michigan State players were upset with Spartan fans who left early during MSU’s 31-7 loss at home to Ohio State on October 14. Said senior center and team co-captain Kyle Cook, “That felt like an away game for us. A lot of our fans left and their fans were louder than our fans were. . . . Like we’ve said to the guys, we’re here as a family and we play for each other. We don’t play for the fans.” Kind of like former Clippers center Benoit Benjamin, who famously said “I don’t give a s--t about the fans.” Sounds like Cook doesn’t either going into this week’s game against Purdue.
>> This year’s “game of the century” update: if Ohio State and Michigan win their two remaining games over vastly inferior opponents, it appears that the Buckeyes will open a 5-point favorite over Michigan for their titanic on November 18. In the meantime, tickets for the game are selling on eBay for between $1,000 and $2,500 the pair, but four Club seats with a parking pass went for $15,000!
>> Blue blood vs. blue collar: in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday at Churchill Downs, Preakness Stakes winner Bernardini is the even-money favorite and is owned by a member of the ruling family of Dubai. But the third choice is California-bred Lava Man, a gelding who has won all seven of his races this year and won nearly $4 million – most ever for a former claiming horse – but has never won a race outside of California.
>> Biting the hand that feeds you: International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge of Belgium railed against what he called the “tyranny of the screen” at the Sport for All conference in Havana. Rogge said sports must be more attractive to young people so they aren’t seduced by television, videos, computers and games and settle into a sedentary lifestyle, but he didn’t suggest talking a walk while the Olympic Games are on. No surprise from someone who collects up to $2 billion dollars in television revenue for each edition of the Olympic Games!
>> Follow-up: maybe drug testing should be a new sport, because there is as least as much activity going on in laboratories and courtrooms as on any playing field. The latest sign of the apocalypse is a special e-mail edition of the insider newsletter Sport Intern sent to subscribers today, with news about nothing other than doping cases! In addition to the indictment of track & field coach Trevor Graham and a 50-game suspension for New York Mets reliever Guillermo Mota, the round-up included a long story from Pakistan about the two-year doping bans handed down to cricket players Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammed Asif! They are both fast-pitch bowlers – the equivalent of pitchers in baseball – that can throw the ball about 100 miles per hour! Both were caught for using the steroid nandrolone, but proclaim their innocence and will, of course, appeal.
>> Follow-up doping: say this for the endless controversies about who took what and gained what advantage, it’s about the only thing that keeps some sports in the news at all. It is especially a sign of how far one sport, track & field, has fallen from grace, especially when the United States was and still is, the dominant worldwide power. USA Track & Field Executive Director Craig Masback will have a lot of answering to do at this year’s national convention, coming up in about a month, for why there is no organized set of meets that anyone other than coaches and a few fanatics can discern and why the popularity of a once-important sport in this country continues its free-fall.
>> More track & field: one of the most interesting New York City Marathons in some years will take place on Sunday . . . as if anyone was noticing. But there were 93,000 people who sent in entries, with 37,000 actually getting to compete. The race will be televised live in New York, but only webcast otherwise except for a highlights show at 2 p.m. on NBC. Celebrity entrants include cycling legend Lance Armstrong and chef Bobby Flay, but the attention will be on world-record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya and a strong American contingent including Olympic silver medalist Meb Keflezghi, and Olympians Alan Culpepper and Dathan Ritzenheim. In the women’s field, Olympic bronze-medal winner Deena Kastor of Mammoth Lakes, California will be chasing Kenyan Catherine “The Great” Ndereba, the second-fastest women’s marathoner ever. No American has won this race in either gender since 1982.
>> Crystal ball: the World Boxing Council welterweight title is on the line Saturday as 36-0 Floyd Mayweather, Jr. faces Carlos Baldomir, a 7-1 underdog who has won his last 20 fights dating back to 1999. If Mayweather does the expected, look for a Cinco de Mayo 2007 match-up in Las Vegas with the Golden Boy, Oscar de la Hoya, in what will probably be Oscar’s last fight.
>> NFL calling: the NFL is ramping up efforts to promote “olive ball.” That’s what American football is known by, if at all, in China, but the NFL will stage an exhibition game between New England and Seattle in Beijing next August. The NFL admits that one of its problems in promoting the game is that almost no one in China knows anything about it! So the NFL is broadcasting NFL Sunday-night games and the playoffs on China Central Television right on through the Super Bowl. You can also go to the NFL’s Mandarin-language web site, NFLChina.com and get weekly alerts, register to win prizes, get videos demonstrating the basic aspects of the game and, of course, download pictures of NFL cheerleaders!
>> More China: the NBA has no such problems with familiarity, with stars like Yao Ming in the league and an amazing 51 different broadcasters in China, including China Central and local outlets in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai. The NBA is now televised in 20 of China’s 22 provinces. In all, the NBA will reach 215 countries in 41 different languages using 118 different broadcasters this season.
>> Wedding watch: Bulgarian premier league soccer team Litex Lovech has ordered striker Ivelin Popov to get married in the next year in order to tamp down his wild lifestyle. Popov is 19 years old (!) and told the Reuters news agency, “I accept the order and I promise to do it. My bosses are right to want such a thing from me because they know my temper. I know I’m a very bad boy and I want to meet my 20th birthday as a married man.” At least he won’t be holding auditions; he already has a steady girlfriend.
~ Rich Perelman
Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below!
Don’t forget to register for our drawing for free sports memorabilia! Just click on the “Register & Win” tab at left; enter today!
|
|
